It's A Girl

Abigail, Dennis, Paul & Eve

Would like to introduce you to their new sister...

~Esther Truth Levie~

Born Wednesday September 16^th at 1:04pm

Weighing in at 7lb 4oz

Stretching out to 20 ½ inches

It all began Tuesday evening at 7:20pm while I was shopping with all the children at Wal Mart... Yep, you guessed it; my water broke right there in the store. I happened to see Adam Hailstone who let me use his cell phone to call Allen. As gracefully as possible I made my way to the closest register, purchased my groceries and went home, thankfully the contractions had not yet started.

Because of a negative pregnancy test taken early on, the baby was not expected for another two weeks, so upon arriving home I immediately washed some baby clothes and blankets (something that had not been done yet) while Allen packet a bag for the children and Uncle Lem came to pick them up (thank you Lem & Chiya) .My mother and sister Mary jumped in their cars and began the journey, one from the South and the other from the North. The contractions started around 9pm... and then Stopped at 4am, by then my midwives and my mother were here, we all decided to get some sleep. At 8:30am a contraction woke me up; Mary had arrived so everything was set. I labored all morning and at 1:04 our little girl was born. This birth was amazing, I had excellent midwives who gently guided me and helped this to be a peaceful, beautiful experience. My loving husband was perfect, I couldn’t have done it without him!

Esther is a very peaceful, gentle baby; she only cried twice the day she was born.

The first two days she slept and slept, now she stays awake to plays with her brothers

and sisters, or more appropriately put, they play with her.

The baby didn’t have a name for the first 24 hours of her life, Allen and I filled a white board with names and finally decided on Esther Truth. We both have incredible ancestors named Esther and I have a sister with that name, we wanted to use a virtue for her middle name and Truth fit perfectly with Esther.

I had wonderful care during my recovery. My mother stayed for five days, she is so calm and loving I’m glad she could come (thanks dad). My sister Mary was here with her two boys for two and a half weeks, she was an angel (gratitude to Jeff for loaning me his wife to for so long). Little Esther has had two great media experiences in the first two weeks of her life, she watched her first General Conference and her first BYU football game, thanks to her Aunt Melanie she was dressed appropriately for the occasion.

“Cry and Shout, the Cougars are out.”

Thank you all for the dinners, gifts, cards, visits and phone calls. We are most grateful to our Heavenly Father for blessing us with this beautiful little child. Know that you are all in our thoughts and prayers.

The Levie Family

Peaches, Bedrest & More Peaches

We drove down to Hurricane (Southern Utah pronunciation is Hurricun) to the Church peach orchard to pick peaches. Since I am pregnant I took it easy and had help carrying buckets, but the next day I had major complications with my pregnancy. So instead of canning my peaches and then going to a nieces baptism and nephews baby blessing that weekend I sent my family off because I was confined to my bed. Then I was tested and it was a false alarm, so here I am with three days with no husband or children, that has not ever happened to me in my whole marriage. So I relaxed and did peaches and read and finally updated my blog. I was very happy to get my family back, the weekend was a bit lonely.


I was able to get so much more done with my children's help then when I was alone. We bottled peaches, peach nectar, peach jam, made peach freezer jam, and sliced peaches to freeze. The children have been wonderful, especially Abby, she loved canning and would wake up every morning saying “When can we bottle fruit mom?” I told them that I would pay them .10¢ for every quart jar that they filled, it was amazing how fast they were, I never filled a single quart, they filled while I boiled the peaches and filled them with water, put on the lids and steamed them, etc. I love having older children that are such good helpers.


Paul had a hard time focusing for very long, he would run off and flap his arms saying “Mom, I’m a bird so you won’t see me again because I will fly away.” Then he would lure Denny away and they pretended to be a Nawk (i.e Hawk) and a Dove chasing each other around the house. Then Dennis would remember his dimes and say “Paul I have to finish my peaches.” We bottles around 110 quarts in addition to all the jam and frozen peaches, it was a grand adventure and I’m glad I could do it before the baby came.

I told Abby that we needed to get some apples so we could can applesauce and she said "Mom, are you kidding? You are going to have a baby, we can't do anymore canning." I suppose she's right, it's a good thing my children keep me in line :)

Cream Puffs

Since posting about Allen's Birthday Cream Puffs so many people have asked for the recipe that I am just going to post it. I got this recipe to make for my brother Lem's wedding breakfast two years ago (picture above), the recipe is written with a lot of good details, don't let that be intimidating they really are quits easy to make. So enjoy!


Aunt Pam’s Cream Puffs

Pastry (makes a large batch of puffs, so for normal use cut the recipe in half)

4 cups water
4 sticks margarine
4 cups flour
16 eggs

Bring butter and water to a rolling boil, watch it closely because when the butter and water start to boil rapidly it will want to boil over very fast. Once the butter is melted, and the water is boiling, remove it from the heat and add the 4 cups of flour all at once, stir till thoroughly mixed. After the mixture has cooled for a while, add the eggs, 4 at a time. Mix them in thoroughly with electric beaters, it’s important that the eggs get whipped, 4 AT A TIME (very important). The pastry is now ready to be formed. Spoon it into a 16" pastry bag with a decorative tip and pipe onto greased cookie sheets, probably about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and about an inch high, you can experiment until you get the size you like. Make sure that there is a full bottom on the puffs, otherwise they will bake and when you take them off the pan there will be a whole in the bottom of the puff. These grow to be about double the size when they cook, so space them accordingly on the cookie sheet. Bake at about 375 or 400 for about 45 minutes or until they are golden brown, they need to be fairly well cooked because they will soften as they cool if they are not cooked enough, the time in the oven varies, and I usually go by look and feel more than time.

Filling (one and a half this recipe for half of the puff recipe)

I don't know exactly how much you have to make to fill how many puffs, it is not an exact art, but here is the recipe, multiply it by a lot of times, and buy extra stuff to make the filling just in case you need it, it is always better to have too much on hand than too little:

1 large box instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 c. milk
1 capful of vanilla, you NEED to use Molina Mexican vanilla, it is the best, and they won't taste right if you don't. If you can't get a hold of Molina, let me know and I can ship some to you. (American vanillas are high in alcohol content, so they don't have as much of the good vanilla flavor as the Molina does, it is more concentrated, and really yummy)

1/2 of a large container of cool whip whipped topping.

Put the milk into the bowl, then add the pudding, whip it with a whisk. Next add the vanilla just don't add the vanilla at the same time as the pudding, because if the vanilla and the dry pudding touch it will form dark lumps in your filling. When that is all whipped together, mix the cool whip in with a spoon (it takes forever to mix the topping in with a whisk, I know, I have tried it) make sure it is well mixed.

To fill the pastries, buy an injector tip from a cake supply store, put it on the end of a 16" pastry bag with a coupler and stick the tip into the pastry puff and fill. I have found as a general rule of thumb you can stick the tip in and lift the pastry up just a little, then as they fill with the filling and become heavier, they will fall off of the tip. That usually works, but sometimes there will be some tough little pastries, it is really something of an art to learn when they are full enough, if you over fill them, then when you pull the tip out of the puff, the filling will come out of the hole a little bit, and you will need to wipe them with a damp cloth, because you don't want that excess filing on top of the puff when you put the chocolate on.

You can freeze the puffs at this point, just make sure you use ziploc freezer bags or freezer containers so they don't taste like freezer when you use them. NEVER freeze them with the chocolate on them, as the chocolate will sweat as it defrosts and that will be an unattractive mess!

Chocolate (half this recipe for half of the puff recipe)

Like I said, this is really an art, so here it is the best I can give it to you:

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (go on, you can steal a few and pop them in your mouth, it won't hurt anything)
1 stick of margarine
1/2 cup of milk

melt all 3 of these in a saucepan, when melted, use a wire whisk to mix in powdered sugar until it thickens (it will take more than you'd think because for some reason it actually thins before it becomes thicker) the consistency needs to be thin enough that it is somewhat runny, but thick enough that when spooned onto the éclair, it runs down the side just a little then stops, perhaps a little thinner than stirred up yogurt. You can add milk to thin it and powdered sugar to thicken it. If it gets too light, add more chocolate and butter, it is really not an exact science, it just has to be the right consistency.

To make the mudslide, I put a coat of chocolate on the plate to anchor the puffs, then I make the first layer of puffs, drizzle chocolate on them, add the next layer, drizzle chocolate, next layer and so on until it reaches the top, getting slightly smaller each layer. Make sure you get it slightly smaller and not a lot smaller, or you will reach the top and your mound won't be very tall, use the chocolate as glue. When the mound is formed, drizzle chocolate on the outside and let it sit in a cool place for a little while to set, then you can serve! Viola! a wonderful dessert that only took you a day or more to make. Good luck!

Yes... I am still Alive!

After five months of not posting anything I'm sure that no one checks this blog anymore, but I am going to start writing again. Part of my silliness is that I don't want to write anything unless it is profoundly inspiring. Now I have decided that writing humdrum stuff is better then not writing at all. So here we go. We have had a great summer! We increased our little farm of three goats and a garden by adding to it six chickens and a pony named Black Beauty.In July we sent my brother Don on a mission to Frankfurt Germany. He was originally called to serve in Russia, but the night before he entered the MTC the Church Mission Office called the Stake President and said that he had been reassigned to Germany. A month later the Church announced that because of Russia's visa policy (every foreigner has to return to his home of origan every three months to renew their visa) they would no longer be sending American missionaries to Russia. Don took the news really well, our Harsh family is actually from that area of Germany so it will be neat to have him there. This makes the forth sibling that Allen and I currently have out on missions. Allen's two brothers, Grant (serving in Denver) & Scott (serving in D.C.), then I have Esther (Richmond Virginia) and now Don (Frankfurt Germany). We are so proud of all four of them, Christmas time will be fun with all those packages to send off :)

Allen Celebrated his 33rd birthday in July. He wanted his Aunt Pam's cream puffs for his birthday cake, so we made them and formed a big tower and they were delicious, thanks for the recipe Aunt Pam!We got him the complete Sackett series by Louis L'Amour (one of our favorite series' of all time). I highly suggest them. Then I took him on a date to see Cyrano at the Shakespeare Festival. It was very good, and after a month of having my husband gone on and off it was so nice to be on a date with him!We had a wonderful Levie Family Reunion. We camped up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake. That is one of my favorite places in the whole world, I love the pine and aspen trees. It was a special reunion because we were all together (except for the two missionaries) for the first time in five years. We had so much fun, and I didn't even mind camping while being almost eight months pregnant.

There's nothing like smore's.

Cousins make the best friends!

Brushing their teeth before being zipped into their tents.

There are 20 Levie cousins with three on the way (some were napping so not all are in the picture).

Little Eve fell asleep before dinner after a fun day of playing with her cousins.

Abby, Denny and Paul were in both 24th of July Parades (Cedar City & Enoch City).

They loved throwing candy to the children, but I suspect they liked eating the candy best.

Those are some of the highlights of our summer. Hopefully I will be a better blogger over the next five months.

Sending Esther on a Mission

We just got back on Friday from a six day stay in Salt Lake where we sent my baby sister Esther off on her mission to Richmond Virginia. The whole family was able to be together, it was very special.

Esther's talk was very good then we had a luncheon and took family pictures since it is the last time we will all be together for two years, my brother Don will be leaving on his mission at the end of May.

This is a picture of all of my brothers and sisters oldest to youngest from right to left (Me 31, Mary 29, Lem 23, Esther 21, Don 18, Taft 14, Robert 10, Jesse 6), the eight of us span twenty three years. I love my brothers and sisters, they are my best friends.

The seven Harsh grandchildren with Auntie Esther. Eve was asleep, but did that stop us from taking a cousins picture? Oh no, the picture must be taken! Despite being asleep somehow that didn't stop her from trying to find something special up her nose, Jeff tried to move her hand away but she just put it right back.

Once we had recovered from the first 2/3ds of the day we held an Eagle Court of Honor for Don, he had been waiting a year for a time when we would all be there. It was very good, Allen wore his new scout uniform and said it was the first time he had sat in the Eagle's Nest since he received his Eagle. I was very proud of Don, and grateful that my boys could see their uncle's example.

On Monday, St Patrick's Day, Mary made us all Mickey Mouse pancakes. Then all the girls went shopping with Esther to get those last minute items, it was so fun.

We found a killer hat, I loved it but didn't have any shoes that would match so I didn't get it... ha ha. I made a corn beef and cabbage dinner (a must for St. Patrick's Day). Tuesday morning bright and early we all went to the Temple, I loved talking in the Celestial room with Esther.


That evening she was set apart and then we had a family testimony meeting, all the RM's gave Esther their advice. We all cried, it was great.


Then came the MTC day. It was so awesome to be at the MTC with all of the new missionaries and their families. Allen's little brother Scott is going to the MTC this Wednesday so he might see Esther there. He has been called to the Washington DC North mission which is above Esther's mission.


Esther said goodbye to all the little children before we went in, but it didn't help, when it was time to say goodbye Abby held onto the back of Esther while she hugged everyone else. Esther started to cry the minute she sat down for the presentation they give you. Mary was very brave and said we shouldn't cry but be happy and cheerful for Esther and we could cry later, but I couldn't hold it in, I realized that I wouldn't be talking to Esther three or four times a week any more. Mary started crying as soon as we got into the hall, she's so good. I always wanted to go on a mission, I'm glad that one of the Harsh girls will have gone. I'm very proud of her.


After the MTC we went to Mary's mother-in-laws house and had an Easter egg hunt in her beautiful back yard. Then we said goodbye to Mary and Jeff as they were going back to California and my children and I went to spend the night with Allen's older sister Melanie and their family. They are in a brand new home in Highland, we had so much fun visiting and the kids loved being with their cousins that they hadn't seen since last July. Then Allen came and picked us up and we went back to Cedar City, it was quite the adventure, and just think we get to do it all over again in May when Don leaves... wow! Today is my 31st birthday, I am now officially in my thirties, gosh that is too close to 40 for my comfort! Oh well, time marches on. I hope you all had a great Easter weekend.

Mighty Paul Paul

Yesterday Paul came in the house with his finger in his mouth whimpering a bit. "The cat scratched me mom." I consoled him and then got him ready to take a nap, and then I started to think about it, our cats are kind of wild and don't come up to you to be petted they run away. So I asked Paul how the cat scratched his finger, was he petting the cat? "No mom, I was just trying to whack his head off." Oh, well that was why the cat scratched him, simple self defense, poor thing. Paul is our adventure child. We love him, and then we talk about how to treat animals:)

Martha's Book Nook

A LANTERN IN HER HAND

Yesterday I finished the most incredible book! My good friend recommended it and loaned me her copy, I felt like she had given me the most precious of gifts by introducing me to this inspiring read. I would like to give you the same gift and tell you about it in the hopes that you will read it, so ladies check your local library or you can get used for $2 online. (Those of you who live in Cedar, we have it at our library.) Also if you don't mind reading books online you can find it by googling the title.

Yesterday I was feeling my morning sickness most keenly, so for most of the day I sat in a chair and rotated reading to my children and finishing this book, I must have used half a roll of TP as I cried while reading. This is a story of Abbie Deal who was a pioneer settler in Nebraska. Never have I read a book that so thoroughly depicts what it is like to be a wife and mother. They say that what you do as a mother is not just for your children, but for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There is that story of the man who is planting oak trees and the town thinks he's crazy, so they tell him so "Why are you planting all those trees, you will never see them in your lifetime?" and the man replied "You thought I was planting these trees for me, no these are for my grandchildren." I always had a hard time understanding this concept, I want big trees right now for me! I don't want to work hard for something that I love and cherish if I won't be able to enjoy it. Why have dreams if you can't make them come true.

But now, because I read this story, I understand... I can see clearer the bigger picture of life and how it all works. Your dreams aren't just for you, that's just selfishness as you see in two of Abbie's daughters, dreams are seeds planted in the heart of everyone you come in contact with. We must have dreams, desires, wishes, for our own sake and our families. The best is yet to come in the future and in the next life.

I appreciate more the sacrifice of my pioneer ancestors, who wanted big things for their families but didn't see it in their lifetime, however I am living it today. Now I am ready to get to work, to gain a vision and work everyday for it in my life and the lives of my posterity, when I think of what I will do today and in a week, month and year I can see my grandchildren and how that will affect them. That gives me strength and courage and purpose to do what needs to be done. I even learned the greatest of lessons by a mistake that Abbie makes with her children.

Please read this book, you will relate to it even though you never rode in a covered wagon or lived in a sodie. I promise you that it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. I plan to read it over and over again through the years.

P.S. I just got off the phone with my sister who read this book years ago and hated it. We talked about it and I can see why she didn't like it, the author of the book wasn't perfect. So I thought it prudent to curb my intensity and retract my "promise" that you will love this book. I still recommend it though, and I won't be offended if you don't like it, after all we are each of us different with varying backgrounds and experiences. Happy day to all of you.

The Sick & The Sickest

Well, we had been looking forward to last weekend for months. Every March Diann Jeppsen puts on The Thomas Jefferson Education Forum, and for the past three years she has asked me to teach one of the classes. The convention is at the Hilton hotel in Salt Lake, we had a room for two nights and we had great plans for swimming and relaxing. Then the bomb shell struck, all of us including Allen got really sick (because it's not enough to have morning sickness, I want to get a cold on top of it). When the weekend came I was sick but Allen was sickest, so I basically ran the show. We all had blessings and I felt quite better (which was good since I was presenting at the forum).
We were able to see so many good friends including Steve and Michelle Adams who have been in Florida for the last three years. Notice Allen's red nose in the picture above, that's from blowing it non stop. The Forum was incredible! My two presentations went really well. Taft was able to come at the last minute and good old Robert watched all the kids. My Parents and Don helped us out at our Elocution 360 table, we are doing a seminar in May to help Don finish paying for his mission.

Then we ended up staying for three extra days at my parents house because we were too wiped out and sick to drive home. We had just read in Little House on the Prairie that the whole Engles family got sick and would have died if someone hadn't have just dropped by. So we were grateful to my family for letting us stay so they could take care of us.


The last day that we were there my mom announced that it was time to clean up, and if everyone did their part when the butler came they would get a treat, but only if the butler was satisfied with his inspection. I had to smile because my mom did this with us when we were little, she would put this had on her head and walk through the house speaking with an English accent. We loved it then and my kids loved it just as much. They busily cleaned up all the toys encouraging each other to "hurry before the butler gets here". Then the doorbell rang and it was a man to see my brother Don, but Paul went right up to him and asked "Are you the butler?"

Finally the doorbell rang and in walked the butler, my dad in a trench coat, mustache and boller hat.
The children were in awe and thrilled to get a treat. In the end they knew that it was grandpa, but that didn't matter, they were pretending with him and loving it.

So now we are safe and sound in our own home almost all better. I hope you all are doing well, and that there is no sickness in your family!

Expecting Much

We are pregnant! When we told our children, little Eve raised her hands up and said "Yeeeaaahhh!". She loves babies, and prays "Baby nome" which means I want a baby to come home. All our children pray that we will have twins. Allen and would love that, but it seems that people that want twins don't get them and the people that had never thought of having twins get them. We'll see.

Reunions

Family Reunions are popularly not always the most exciting experience. The Levie and Harsh families break with tradition. The Levie reunion was held over a 4 day period at the end of July There are 9 children in the Levie family ranging from 33-17 years old. There were 16 grandchildren present and 15 of them were under 6 years old. One of the highlights was the Get Past the Uncles game where the children tried to get to some candy by muscling through 6 uncles. Another was our mountain bike, shooting, fishing excursion. We sang songs together at night and on the last day we met together to just kick around what people wanted to do next year.

All-n-all it was just nice to be together. I think we have some tough years coming and it will be nice to have close family ties. The Harsh reunion took place over the next weekend we played football, had a big feast where we borrowed pewter ware, we had a talent show that turned out really great, We had a jousting tournament and played a great game of football. The Harsh family is still small with 5 grandchildren and 2 on the way.

That was a few weeks ago. We are now preparing for the fall and telling people about Martha's Elocution lessons. We will be travelling to Salt Lake every other week for 3 months. It will be a great adventure.